Candice Malcolm: Trudeau rewards a terrorist with citizenship

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

Zakaria Amara is a convicted terrorist, serving a life sentence for his role in a plot to murder scores of Canadians. And now, thanks to a Trudeau government bill passed through the Senate this week, Amara will soon be given the privilege of Canadian citizenship.

After all, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, right?

In the case of Amara, this “Canadian” was born in Jordan and raised in Saudi Arabia.

He came to Canada as a teenager, became a Canadian citizen as a young man, and, by the time he turned 20, he was behind bars and charged with terrorism.

Amara was the ringleader of a sophisticated terrorist cell known as the Toronto 18. He recruited, trained and groomed fellow Islamist extremists and worked towards a deadly terrorist plot.

Amara wanted to detonate bombs in downtown Toronto, and coordinate shooting sprees at the CBC and the Toronto Stock Exchange. He planned to siege Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and carry out executions and beheadings of politicians, including the Prime Minster.

He wanted to mass murder Canadians. And even more so, he wanted to shatter our sense of safety and security. It would have forever changed Canada.

Thankfully, this madman’s plot was foiled by an undercover police sting operation. Amara pled guilty to terrorism charges, and was slapped with a life sentence.

Under the Harper government, Amara had his Canadian citizenship revoked and was set to be deported the moment he was released from prison.

But things have changed under Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau said during the 2015 election campaign that he believes “terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship.” And now he’s keeping good on that pledge.

Trudeau’s Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told the Senate that the Liberal government had already initiated the process to restore citizenship to the convicted terrorist.

While Trudeau didn’t mind throwing other campaign promises out the window – modest deficits, electoral reform, legalizing marijuana, and so on – he deemed it a priority to grant citizenship to this convicted terrorist.

Trudeau’s agenda prioritized helping a man who hates Canada so much he wanted to wage war against it. Amara was so ungrateful to his host country that he plotted to mass murder civilians in a senseless and unprovoked attack.

And yet, Trudeau is rewarding him with the privilege of Canadian citizenship.

The decision is as reckless as it is absurd.

It’s the height of Liberal moral relativism to say that we’re no better than Islamist extremists, and that terrorists deserve a second chance in Canada. Trudeau seems to believe we should be tolerant and welcoming to everyone, even hateful Islamists and bloodthirsty jihadists.